The maker of a drug shown to shorten recovery time for severely ill COVID-19 patients says it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed countries. Gilead Sciences announced the price Monday for remdesivir, and said the price would be $3,120 for patients with private insurance. The amount that patients pay out of pocket depends on insurance, income and other factors. The price was swiftly criticized; a consumer group called it an outrage" because of the amount taxpayers invested toward the drug's development. In 127 poor or middle-income countries, Gilead is allowing generic makers to supply the drug; two countries are doing that for around $600 per treatment course. The drug, given through an IV, interferes with the coronavirus's ability to copy its genetic material. In a U.S. government-led study, remdesivir shortened recovery time by 31% - 11 days on average versus 15 days for those given just usual care. Peter Maybarduk, a lawyer at the consumer group Public Citizen, called the price "an outrage." "Remdesivir should be in the public domain" because the drug received at least $70 million in public funding toward its development, he said. "The price puts to rest any notion that drug companies will 'do the right thing' because it is a pandemic," Dr. Peter Bach, a health policy expert ... said. "The price might have been fine if the company had demonstrated that the treatment saved lives. It didn't."